At the Foot of the Cross
This morning has started off being one of those days that for the most part you hope and pray never happens again, yet on the other hand you know you have need for such things to happen. You see those things that challenge us, those people who disappoint us, the unfounded rumors spawned by insecurities, feelings of low self esteem in others that end up breaking our hearts, these are what drive us to the foot of the cross. I found myself there this morning, lying at the foot of the cross, a comfortingly familiar place, a place of peace,security, healing, and protection, a place like no other, a place that can only be found at the feet of Jesus. You see no matter what we dream, think, or suspect, there really is only one truth that matters; that Jesus came, died, paid the price for our sins, and that someday He will return for us, and we will rise and defeat death, just like He did. What happens between now and that day of resurrection should be nothing more or less than each of us living a life filled the the hope of that promise. Truly what else matters? One of my children asked me yesterday if I thought that they would die young, my answer: “live every day as if you were dying tomorrow”. Why you ask? Because if I live today as if there were no tomorrow I would never do anything that would leave hurting people behind, there would be no regrets, I would share with as many as I could the joy of the Lord! But more importantly it is not what we would do but rather what we would not do that matters most. We would not sow seeds of discord, we would not hurt people, we would never do anything to harm another, and surely we would do nothing that might cause us not to be with Christ when we do pass. James 4:13-17 reminds us that we do not have any right to plan for tomorrow, and Matthew 6:34 says not to worry about tomorrow, so why do we?
I am listening to a new Todd Agnew song called “I need no Other” and he is singing about the fact that we need nothing more than Jesus, and as he is sharing about Jesus healing I was struck with a truth that bears repeating. In Matthew 8 Jesus is approached by a Centurion who asks him to heal his servant, and he says to Jesus just speak the healing and it will be done. Jesus responds with saying that this faith this believing without seeing is true faith none like Jesus has seen in Israel and because of his belief the centurion’s servant was healed. My though was this, how much healing are we missing out on because we do not believe? In particular today I speak of healing of our minds, our hearts, our emotions, and so much more. Because we compensate for our inadequacies we become someone different than who Christ would have us be and never walk in the fullness of His grace. Because we are insecure we become arrogant, because we are fearful we boast, because we are shy we hide, and so on. When truly all we need do is go to the foot of the cross, admit who we truly are, and let the blood and healing touch of Jesus deliver us from bondage. When we neglect or deny the healing we effect negatively everyone around us, why? Because we are not walking in grace and mercy, and fullness of life, we are rather living in judgment, anger, and so much more, none of which is God’s will.
There are far too many wounded and hurting people in this world who call themselves Christians and go around hurting others as opposed to setting the captives free, its time to change. I pray that you would join me at the foot of the cross, join me in receiving the healing God has for us, and may we live each day as if it were our last, for after all it may be.
Gene Burroughs
Pastor Shasta Lake Church
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Comfort or Satisfaction
Comfort or Satisfaction which do we seek?
Romans 8:13 Says that it is by the Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the flesh. You will notice the word Spirit here is one that is capitalized, signifying that it is the Holy Spirit of which Paul speaks. I take his statement to mean that in order to overcome the deeds, trials, and challenges we face in our flesh we must submit to and allow the Holy Spirit to put them to death. As I have been faced with many of the same fleshly challenges that all mankind faces in one form or another I can honestly say that I am in a place where I have never been before a place of victory over flesh, a place I believe no man can arrive at without the help and strength of the Lord. A place than can only be given to us as we submit to and allow the Holy Spirit to defeat our flesh. On the day after Thanksgiving in 2010 I began a fast purposed to overcoming the desires and temptations of my flesh, one dedicated to allowing Jesus to be my comfort, as opposed to my flesh. Many of us wrongfully allow food, drugs, alcohol people, sex, or other fleshly activities to become our comfort . When in reality our true comfort should come in and through our spirit . This comfort of which I speak can only come from the Spirit of the living God, this is a true and complete comfort, a comfort our souls crave. The challenge for so many of us is that we spend so much time and effort comforting our flesh and seeking gratification that we are never fully satisfied, we simply move from one form of gratification to another in search of comfort rather than satisfaction. This action simply causes us to crave more gratification and in doing so we fall deeper and deeper into bondage to our flesh all the while starving our spirit. If we seek comfort in anything we will find comfort to be a very temporary feeling often accompanied with far more detrimental and lasting consequences. For example, if we seek comfort in food we will find ourselves, overweight, suffering physically and emotionally, the guilt often driving us to a place of desperation again seeking only more comfort and driving us deeper and deeper into our desperation. The same could be said for any of the other comforts we seek in the flesh, money causes greed and the desire for more money, the desire for sexual gratification twists our thoughts of intimacy and so on and so on. However the true satisfaction we seek can only be found in the place of our spirit, and satisfaction is eternal, everlasting, and without negative consequence. Satisfaction brings joy, and peace, the fruits of satisfaction are never detrimental. The fruits of true satisfaction are peace, joy, love, grace, mercy, patience, kindness, it is the culmination of the fruits of true love found in first Corinthians Thirteen. When Paul is speaking of love he is describing the character of Jesus, the heart of God, the reality of what God truly desires for each of us to experience. This love can only be experienced to this level by those who have become satisfied in the spirit not comforted in the flesh.
As I have walked through the past ninety plus days of denying myself the comfort of the things that kept me from true satisfaction yes it has been at times extremely difficult, but never impossible. You see the Lord knew how difficult it would be, and He alone has given me the strength to make it through, He never left my side, even in those nights when I failed. Oh yes I fell, and yet His hand was there to pick me up, why? Because He loves me, and He knows that I am a man not a god, that I am flesh not spirit, and that I must have His help to make it through every day. This has been the greatest diet I have ever been on, you see the weight, the food, the eating wrong, those were never my problems they were simply the result of a man seeking comfort in the flesh as opposed to a man seeking satisfaction in the spirit. I pray that I never forget this lesson, today I feel as if I never could as long as I remain satisfied in Christ! For you see this is not a diet, it is no longer a fast, this is now a life dedicated to finding my comfort through the satisfaction of knowing God and denying the flesh that separates me from Him. Will you join me and others like me today, as we seek His will for us in our lives, in order that we might be whole?
Pastor Gene Burroughs
Shasta Lake Church
A place of New Beginnings
Romans 8:13 Says that it is by the Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the flesh. You will notice the word Spirit here is one that is capitalized, signifying that it is the Holy Spirit of which Paul speaks. I take his statement to mean that in order to overcome the deeds, trials, and challenges we face in our flesh we must submit to and allow the Holy Spirit to put them to death. As I have been faced with many of the same fleshly challenges that all mankind faces in one form or another I can honestly say that I am in a place where I have never been before a place of victory over flesh, a place I believe no man can arrive at without the help and strength of the Lord. A place than can only be given to us as we submit to and allow the Holy Spirit to defeat our flesh. On the day after Thanksgiving in 2010 I began a fast purposed to overcoming the desires and temptations of my flesh, one dedicated to allowing Jesus to be my comfort, as opposed to my flesh. Many of us wrongfully allow food, drugs, alcohol people, sex, or other fleshly activities to become our comfort . When in reality our true comfort should come in and through our spirit . This comfort of which I speak can only come from the Spirit of the living God, this is a true and complete comfort, a comfort our souls crave. The challenge for so many of us is that we spend so much time and effort comforting our flesh and seeking gratification that we are never fully satisfied, we simply move from one form of gratification to another in search of comfort rather than satisfaction. This action simply causes us to crave more gratification and in doing so we fall deeper and deeper into bondage to our flesh all the while starving our spirit. If we seek comfort in anything we will find comfort to be a very temporary feeling often accompanied with far more detrimental and lasting consequences. For example, if we seek comfort in food we will find ourselves, overweight, suffering physically and emotionally, the guilt often driving us to a place of desperation again seeking only more comfort and driving us deeper and deeper into our desperation. The same could be said for any of the other comforts we seek in the flesh, money causes greed and the desire for more money, the desire for sexual gratification twists our thoughts of intimacy and so on and so on. However the true satisfaction we seek can only be found in the place of our spirit, and satisfaction is eternal, everlasting, and without negative consequence. Satisfaction brings joy, and peace, the fruits of satisfaction are never detrimental. The fruits of true satisfaction are peace, joy, love, grace, mercy, patience, kindness, it is the culmination of the fruits of true love found in first Corinthians Thirteen. When Paul is speaking of love he is describing the character of Jesus, the heart of God, the reality of what God truly desires for each of us to experience. This love can only be experienced to this level by those who have become satisfied in the spirit not comforted in the flesh.
As I have walked through the past ninety plus days of denying myself the comfort of the things that kept me from true satisfaction yes it has been at times extremely difficult, but never impossible. You see the Lord knew how difficult it would be, and He alone has given me the strength to make it through, He never left my side, even in those nights when I failed. Oh yes I fell, and yet His hand was there to pick me up, why? Because He loves me, and He knows that I am a man not a god, that I am flesh not spirit, and that I must have His help to make it through every day. This has been the greatest diet I have ever been on, you see the weight, the food, the eating wrong, those were never my problems they were simply the result of a man seeking comfort in the flesh as opposed to a man seeking satisfaction in the spirit. I pray that I never forget this lesson, today I feel as if I never could as long as I remain satisfied in Christ! For you see this is not a diet, it is no longer a fast, this is now a life dedicated to finding my comfort through the satisfaction of knowing God and denying the flesh that separates me from Him. Will you join me and others like me today, as we seek His will for us in our lives, in order that we might be whole?
Pastor Gene Burroughs
Shasta Lake Church
A place of New Beginnings
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)